Premium Member

I have read all the threads here detailing how to change headlight bulbs, but can anyone offer any insight as to how to get to the things? I have looked under the hood and can see the latch described in the how-to posts, but have no idea how to get to it. Do I have to remove the battery box to get to the driver's side headlight?

Tell your mom I said hi

You could probably ask 10 people and get 11 diferent answers. The headlight latch is one of the top 5 PITA on the NB in my opinion. Here is how I do it.
Get a long straight tip screw driver. Gentltly push in the loching portion of the latch. I need to stress gently. It will probably break anywaybut at least you tried not to.
While pressing in on lock, use finger tips to move latch down. I then use the flat tip of the screw driver to press down on the latch until it is all the way down. Use a large auto body dent removal suction cup, available at a parts place for about $10, it won't be the only time you use it, and gently pull out the headlight. Don't get to gorilla fisted with pulling or you can pull the headlight lens off the housing. It should pull out without alot of effort.
Good luck.

Premium Member

I just changed the headlight bulb and succeeded in breaking the lever that slides the locking ring around the headlight assembly. I'm not even sure I can get the assembly back in the car now without resorting to duct tape...

Does anyone happen to know if the locking ring/lever assembly is available separately?

Premium Member

If you want to lubricate the ring, try to get hold of a dry graphite lubricant. Any grease based lubricant will gather dirt and dust which will cause problems in the future. Graphite will have less problems.

Premium Member

Thanks. My dealer does have the parts to replace those I destroyed, so that's good, but now I have other problems that just showed up.

Last night I replaced both low beam headlights and both rear tail/stop lights. This morning I noticed my glow plug warning light is flashing and my cruise control doesn't work. Does anyone know if these problems could be related to the bulb replacement? I did use LEDs in the tails in place of the standard 1157s, but I don't think that would have anything to do with it.

Anyone know if a full exhaust for another MKIV car, Golf/Jetta, will fit fine on a NB? Mostly the hanger at the muffler?
Everywhere I've looked is either out of stock or doesn't have Turbo-back setups for NB's, only Golfs and Jettas. I figure I can just get one made for the other cars with...

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I just picked up a 2003 VW turbo S this week for $750 and 170k miles, with it needing a water pump and a new front fender since the old one had a small crack in it. I’ve been looking for some performance modifications and specifically performance chips. I’ve looked them up and I see a lot, but I...

I had an interesting question posed to me this morning. I was asked if I ever towed anything with our Beetle, and what the towing capacity was for a New Beetle.
Even though I would never tow anything with our Beetle, I was wondering what the towing capacity was for a 2.0 and a 2.5 if anyone...

Has anyone installed 'in-bumper' rear parking sensors to their Beetle?
I've done this before to other cars so I know what to do - but want to know if it's easy to access the sensor wiring from behind the bumper and tap into the reverse wire OK?
Have posted this on the UK New Beetle Forum -...

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